Each week, a new guest hosts the @IndigenousX twitter account to discuss topics of interest as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. In partnership with IndigenousX, we're inviting its weekly host to tell us about who they are, what issues they're passionate about, and what they have in store for us during their upcoming week.

Tell us about yourself. Who are you, where are you from, what do you do?

I'm a Meriam, Wuthathi and Bindal Juri woman who thrives on saltwater and sunshine, born in Brisbane and high schooled in Gladstone. I'm a proud a Magaram Meriam woman, a descendant of Su Tabo from Murray Island and Douglas Pitt from Jamaica who brought the light and settled on Darnley Island in the Torres Strait. That's my paternal grandfather's side.

My paternal grandmother Nancy Binsiar was born on Thursday Island and had Malay and Wuthathi heritage. My maternal grandmother Jesse Hegarty was raised at Cherbourg but has Bindal Juri heritage from the Townsville region. My grandfather Vince Bunda was also from Cherbourg. There's other bloodlines too, my ancestor Pedro Guivarra was Spanish Filipino from Masbate.

My love for music and technolopgy has led me to fall into the career of a multimedia journalist who specialises in the arts. I think that's because the arts, music, dancing and story telling in particular is so central to the being of Islanders, something we are brought up to love. I'm currently the arts reporter for the National Indigenous TV News nightly at 5.30pm repeated 7pm & 11pm.

What do you plan to talk about on @IndigenousX this week?

I'm going to bring my focus on the arts to @IndigenousX audiences. I'm constantly talking to artists and creatives in the industry. So far I know there'll be a visual arts focus, string weaving, films, directors, producers, dancers, arts philosophy, arts and politics, music and generally some ruminations about all of that.

What issue affecting Indigenous people do you think is most pressing?

I think the arts are very important to our people, through it they can connect to their heritage, ancestors and country. It helps us to be well. In order to improve our health, socio economic profile and status I feel Australia has to embrace our cultures wholeheartedly. This should be done through recognition in every way of our place as first peoples with rich and diverse cultures and practises that have made us the world's oldest living cultures. It needs to be acknowledged in western law through constitutional recognition.

It needs to be acknowledged through educating Australians in our schools curriculum of the united history that we all share of this country's dispossession and colonisation. It also needs to be acknowledged by respecting our ownership of the land and crediting that, not undermining land rights. Many of the issues we face and in particular our health and housing and services may be addressed through action and respect, and we need to address those and not increasing incarcerate our people.

Who are your role models, and why?

My greatest role models are the people in my family, whose survival despite enormous adversity has enabled me and my extended family to all be here today. I come from family who are solid in their culture and they have passed that onto me.

My uncle Wayne Guivarra, who passed at the early age of 55 years and was buried this week, was an amazing community advocate and Torres Strait Islander leader who made many opportunity for Indigenous sport in Far North Queensland, particularly football and the Island of Origin. My mother Iris Jean Hegarty and my dad Walter Guivarra who always supported my ambitions. My grandfather Walter Guivarra senior and his brothers who were pearl divers in the Torres Strait.

My aunts Wilma Reading and Georgia Lee's musical careers inspired my dreams. My aunty Dulcie Flower's work, dedicated to community health, is inspirational. My uncles Ricky Guivarra and Peter Guivarra, two leaders of high integrity, dedicate themselves to the community of Mapoon in far north Queensland. And also to Father Dave Passi, and uncle James Rice who fought the fight with Eddie Mabo to achieve recognition of land and sea rights in this country.